Raw Vegan Olympian: Alexey Voyevoda

Alexey Voyevoda is a World Champion arm wrestler and an Olympic bobsledder from Russia. He is a big guy…. like, really big, weighing in at 253 pounds and stands 6’4″. I would love a photo beside him as I’m 4’11” and 130lb. That would be a great photo!

Yesterday his team won the 2-man bobsled competition at the 2014 Sochi Olympics and the prominent fact about him was that he is a raw vegetarian (vegan?). Before that was announced I had no idea. Of course I wanted to know more about this guy!

PETA has a good, but short, article about him where he says that he became vegan for nutrition and scientific reasons, but the ethical treatment of animals has come into play now.

There are many other articles about him that came out after the profile in The Moscow Times that focuses on how he is raw vegetarian (they keep saying that he is vegetarian, but from my reading he is vegan). None of the articles go into specifics about what that means or how a diet like that could sustain the muscle and power of Voyevoda. What he says in the articles is that he hopes to be an inspiration for Russian people to become healthier through diet and exercise. He absolutely believes that a plant-based diet is healthier and has helped him achieve his success in these Olympic games.

For myself and my training, I am completely inspired to become stronger.

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What is VT?

This website is one that I, Crystal Clarke, started in 2007 with big ideas. It is morphing slowly into a resourceful website for vegans and athletes alike. I put my personal touch on this website in the recipes and the training blog, as I'm a writer, a scientist, a triathlete & a vegan. So what is a vegan triathlete? Well...

vegan. n. vee-gahn. - a person who refrains from using any animal product whatever for food, clothing, or any other purpose.triathlete. n. someone who participates in races consisting of swimming, biking, and running in that order; there are several varying distances with some standard distances:
Sprint: 750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run
Olympic: 1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run
Half Ironman: 2km swim, 90km bike, 21.1km run
Ironman: 3.8km swim, 180km bike, 42.2km run

Who am I?

My name is Crystal Clarke. I'm a vegan triathlete. I've been vegan since 2002 and a triathlete since 2003. Since then I have completed 1 Ironman, 4 half IMs, several Olympic triathlons, and many other triathlons, duathlons, running races, and biking races. My goal for each race is to finish. I'm pretty slow, but can be a middle-of-the-pack person if I'm not injured and train consistently.

In addition to being a vegan triathlete, I'm a writer, I'm an Agrologist, I'm a soil scientist, I'm a knitter, I'm an anti-consumer, I'm an environmentalist, I'm a budding Buddhist, I'm a yogi, I'm a student of life, and I'm bipolar. I'm a lot of things! I don't fit into any one category - that's what I think sets me apart from other athlete blogs.